Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived Tuesday in Afghanistan with plans to assure officials and American troops there that the United States is committed to winning the war despite plans to begin pulling forces out in 2011.

Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, left, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai attend a news conference on Tuesday in Kabul.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday it will be at least 15 years before his government can bankroll a security force strong enough to protect the country from the threat of insurgency.

Speaking at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Karzai repeated his claim that Afghan security forces would take the lead in securing the nation within five years, but said his nation would need financial help to pay the salaries and equip the growing army and police force.

Afghanistan wants to pay for its own forces, Karzai said. But he added, "For a number of years, maybe for another 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources."

Gates is the first member of President Obama's Cabinet to visit since Obama announced last week that he is sending 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan, but intends to pare down the U.S. role in July 2011. The defense secretary and other administration officials have described the 2011 date as just the beginning, with the process likely take at least two or three years to complete.

Gates said he and Karzai discussed how to recruit more Afghan soldiers and police to battle militants. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has set the goal of building the Afghan security force to 400,000 by 2013 — up from roughly 94,000 Afghan police officers and 97,000 soldiers.

"There is a realism on our part that it will be some time" before the Afghan security forces can stand on their own, Gates said.

During his visit, Gates worked to convey two competing messages — that the U.S. would not abandon Afghanistan, as he said the U.S. did after the Soviets withdrew in 1989, and that the American commitment was not open-ended.

Gates said: "Our troops are here only as long as it takes to help you defeat your enemies. We will fight by your side until Afghan forces are large enough and strong enough to secure the nation on their own as they have already done in Kabul."

He added: "On a gradual, conditions-based premise, we will be reducing our forces after July of 2011. But as we have made clear in congressional testimony and on television interviews, we expect that this is a several-year process — whether it's three years or two years or four years remains to be seen. But as President Obama has made clear, this is not an open-ended commitment on the part of the United States."

Regarding Karzai's five-year goal for taking the lead on security, Gates said, "I would hope that we not only could meet the timelines that President Karzai has laid out, but that as more Afghans are trained we will be able to beat those timelines."

Gates also addressed a fear among the Afghan people that more troops in their country will result in more violence and civilian casualties.

"Our top priority remains the safety of civilians," he said.

Just before the two leaders spoke, the Afghan government accused NATO forces of killing civilians during a pre-dawn strike Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan.

NATO said seven militants were killed, but no civilians were injured or killed. A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry said some civilians died in the attack aimed at a Taliban operative in Laghman province. Provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Karim Omeryar said 12 Afghans died, including one woman.

During the press conference, Karzai reaffirmed his commitment to fight corruption. The president, who won re-election to a second term in a ballot marred by fraud, is under intense international pressure to nominate a slate of reformists, and it will be the first test of his willingness to meet his pledge to reform the government.

"We will try our best as Afghans to present a Cabinet to the Afghan people that can also be appreciated and supported by the international community," Karzai said.

Karzai said he was ready to send parliament 40% of his Cabinet nominees now, but that he would meet lawmakers' demand to send a full, not partial, list to the assembly. He said he would send the full list to the parliament next Tuesday or Wednesday or earlier. He said ministers with proven track records of service would remain in the Cabinet, although he did not say if they would stay in their same posts.

Karzai has repeatedly argued that while there is corruption in the Afghan government, there is also corruption within international contracting processes.

Gates said the U.S. and other international partners bore some responsibility because the billions of dollars the international community has been spending in Afghanistan has enabled a climate of corruption.

"I think President Karzai has taken responsibility for dealing with the problem in so far as the Afghans are concerned," Gates said. "We have to do what we can do to help make it more difficult for people to misbehave."

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